Blackbeard, sharks teeth, and crabbing 2012

This is so delayed, but I have to keep up my reputation as Queen of Procrastination.

In July, Jamie and I took the boys to Emerald Isle with Tiff's family and our friends, Sheldon, Casey, and their son, Finley. There is no way to tell all of the events, but I will hit the highlights. We rode waterslides, go-carts, Charlie bowled for the first time, and rode bumperboats, and so much more.

My favorite part of teaching was always sitting with my kids in a circle and telling a social studies lesson in the form of a story, not just any story, but a big eyed "Joann" story with lots of captivating gasps. While at the beach I told Charlie a night-time story about Edward Teach (Blackbeard for those of you who didn't teach 4th grade NC History) I really worked it up. He LOVED it. He fell in love with pirates, and enjoyed saying "booty" in every sentence and then laughing because he got away with it. Anyway, I pulled everyone to the Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Turns out Blackbeard's actual ship wasn't completely on display like I thought, but it was cool anyway.

While we were there we visited a waterpark, and I am so glad we did. Charlie is at the age where is really liked it. Brady enjoyed the splashes with Finley and Charlie went down the slide over and over. It was fun. Also, Jamie almost died when he came within feet of hitting the side of the pool. Enjoy the video soon.

Sheldon is a freak of shark tooth nature. No joke. While we were there he found about 75 teeth. About 2 every steps. Charlie loved looking. He claimed to have found several, but never actually found one.

One night we all took our lights and went crab chasing/hunting on the beach. Jamie and I ended up carrying the boys and had to cut the hunt for crabs short, but when the others flooded in with a bucket of crabs the fun started. In short, we boiled alive innocent crabs, spiced them and ate them. Good memories after I got over the guilt of watching them die.

It was so much fun. Jamie and I were WORN out to say the least, but we loved the time together. We laughed, splashed, jumped waves, and played lots of corn hole. It was a great vacation. Visit our photo site here for more pictures.